Ruth Butterfield

Dr Ruth Butterfield a Senior Research Fellow whose expertise is in agriculture, water and climate change impacts and adaptation. She has worked with SEI since 2002, when the Oxford Centre was established, and she led the SEI Oxford Centre for 14 years, beginning in 2010.

At present, Ruth works on weADAPT, SEI’s signature, collaborative climate change adaptation platform and network, and on the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change project.

Ruth’s research involves the development of climate change vulnerability assessments for countries involved in Advancing Capacity to Support Climate Change Adaptation (ACCCA) projects, using geographic information system (GIS) models and multiple data sources.

She has reviewed national programs on impact and adaptation for the UK Climate Impacts Programme. She also has developed strategies for creating climate change adaptation policies in agriculture and water sectors for the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

In earlier work, she conducted research on: household water use for a UK national assessment as part of a UK analysis of Climate Change and Demand for Water (CCDeW); seasonal climate forecasting in southern African and the potential implications for sustainable livelihoods (CLOUD); and multiple stresses for a study on scoping uncertainty in the “Social Cost of Carbon: A Closer Look at Uncertainty“.

Previously, at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, she worked on two of the largest EU projects on climate change impacts and European agriculture: CLIVARA and CLAIRE.